Psychiatry instead of custody for 64-year-olds who started a fire in his apartment
Created: 01/10/2022Updated: 01/10/2022, 12:09 PM
From: Nina Gut
A 64-year-old had to answer to the judiciary.
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A mentally ill pensioner had set fire in his apartment and now had to answer before the Munich II regional court.
He could not be punished because of his illness.
However, she was placed in a psychiatric ward.
Weilheim -
It was on the evening of September 7th, 2020 when a pensioner from Weilheim started a fire in his living room. He piled wood, pieces of cloth and electrical appliances on the parquet floor and set them on fire. It is only thanks to one passer-by that no one was harmed. Now the 4th Chamber of the Regional Court Munich II has pronounced a judgment: The now 64-year-old pensioner is so seriously mentally ill that he cannot be punished for his act. Instead, the placement in a psychiatric hospital was ordered because the man is a danger to the general public.
At the time, the man lived on the ground floor of an apartment building owned by a housing association. After lighting the objects on the floor, the fire spread across the wooden floor and spread to a wooden beach chair. The accused made no move to put out the fire. Instead he went to the balcony and left the fire to its own devices. Although other residents of the house were in their apartments and were at risk.
The rescue was approaching in the form of a cyclist who happened to be passing by.
He discovered the fire, called the fire brigade and alerted the other residents of the house.
In this way, the fire brigade was able to extinguish the flames in good time before they attacked other, mainly wooden objects in the accused's apartment and the neighboring apartments.
The housing association suffered damage of around 60,000 euros.
A psychiatric expert attested that Weilheimer had a severe, chronic, organic brain psychosyndrome.
He was therefore not in a position to "see the wrongdoing of the act and act on this insight".
Therefore, the 64-year-old remains in the institution for an indefinite period.
